The United States Patent & Trademark Office published new analyses along with its most recent update of AIA Trial Statistics.  The update includes data through end of March 2016 and shows “Percent of Petitions Instituted by Technology” (slide 7) and “Trial Outcomes for Instituted Claims by Technology” (slide 15).

The institution rates for patents in the Mechanical/Business Methods, Electrical/Computer, and Chemical arts were all above 70%, with Chemical the highest at 75%.  In contrast, petitions in the Biotechnology/Pharma arts were instituted at a lower rate of 61%.  These data include all decisions on petitions to date.

Biotechnology/Pharma patents also fared better in trial outcomes for instituted claims, with a greater percentage of claims being found patentable by PTAB in a Final Written Decision.  As a percentage of instituted claims, patents in the Chemical arts saw greater than 60% of claims found unpatentable, while Biotechnology/Pharma patents had fewer than 35% of claims found unpatentable.  Electrical/Computer patents (with by far the most petitions filed and claims instituted) had greater than 50% of claims found unpatentable, and patents in Mechanical/ Business Methods had around 45% of claims found unpatentable.